I Want to Know the Truth
by Cook-chan
Summary: *Chapter 3 up!!!*Kenji trys to protect his friends and himself while finding out the truth about his father.R&R.
1. On That Dark Day

Disclaimer: Most of the characters in the following fic are property of Nobuhiro Watsuki   
  
Chapter One: On That Dark Day  
  
Mist covered the road in the early morning when two teenagers walked quietly along. One was a nice looking girl with raven hair and dark blue eyes wearing a light purple kimono with her hair tied in a very high ponytail. The other was a boy with very dark red hair wearing a blue gi and a very angry expression.  
  
"Kenji," said the girl; " aren't you going to visit your parent's grave? It is their death anniversary."  
  
Kenji's face, if possible, became even tenser.   
  
"Why should I?" he said in a small yell; "It's not like I knew them!"  
  
"But didn't you spend time with your mother?" asked the girl.  
  
"You don't know anything about it, Chiharu!" yelled Kenji, looking more irritated than ever; "All she did was look out into nothing all day waiting for my good-for-nothing father!"  
  
"Kenji!" shouted Chiharu who was now slightly red "How can you say that about them! If you never knew him, how could you know what he was like? And on the day they died too!"  
  
Everything became silent. All Kenji could do was look at her as she tried to catch her breath. He could see she was trying to contain a certain emotion. Maybe she had something more to say.  
  
"She's right," he thought; "I never took the time to ask for the truth about anything, about my father. But I can't tell this to Chiharu, it will make me look like a fool."  
  
They did not utter a word to each other until they reached a clearing. Kenji then realized for the first time where he was, his parent's burial place. A strange feeling came over him. It was as if he was both angry and sad, but still he was a little relieved. Was he glad to be there? Maybe.  
  
Chiharu was sitting in a patch of flowers pick some of the best blossoms that she could find and placing them in a small wooden basket. Kenji watched as she gently plucked the plants from the ground.  
  
"She looks really nice like that," he thought.   
  
Chiharu turned around to face him and smiled. He went red and quickly looked away. She let out a soft giggle and went back to gathering the flowers.  
  
Later, Chiharu placed the basket, which was now filled with well-arranged blooms, near a tombstone that had the names "Himura Kenshin" and "Himura Kaoru" engraved onto it. She kneeled down and fell silent for a moment then looked up to Kenji standing there with the same face he had had that morning. Chiharu made a gesture that told him to join her, but still he did not move a muscle.   
  
She turned back to the lonely looking grave and closed her eyes.  
  
"Please help him," she whispered; "if only he could see what you were like, before this happened."  
  
A gentle breeze suddenly blew past. Kenji and Chiharu's hair flew gracefully along with it. Nearby, and old cherry blossom tree began to loose its flowers, they then joined the wind as it traveled swiftly past the dense woods that lay a few meters away from the clearing.  
  
"Its very beautiful," she said as she stood up.  
  
"Yes," said Kenji; "lets go now, I think it will start raining soon. He looked up to the sky as clouds began to slowly cover it.  
  
"Fine then." she said and she followed Kenji away from the clearing.  
  
Kenji stopped for a moment and stared blankly at his father's name on the small stone plate.  
  
"What was he like?" he wondered; "I guess I'll find out someday."  
  
They slowly walked away from the grave that gradually faded into the thick fog that suddenly came over them. Chiharu looked at Kenji, who was now lost in thought, and began to say something. But she never got the chance, because at that moment, because out of nowhere came a silhouette that fell to the ground with a soft thud onto the street floor. 


	2. Return of a Friend

Disclaimer: As much as I would love to, I do not own Rurouni Kenshin.   
  
Chapter Two: Return of a Friend  
  
Kenji ran down the road to see what had happened, Chiharu closely following. When they reached the spot, they were able to make out the body of a man, around his forties, wearing a faded, bloodstained green coat that had bits of twig sticking out from the ripped seams. He had thick brown hair that had scattered all over his muddy face. He looked as if he had been traveling for miles. Kenji turned him over and looked into the face of the unconscious man.  
  
"Who is he?" asked Chiharu; "I've never seen him around here before. And why's he so beat up?"  
  
"I don't know," said Kenji.  
  
Suddenly, the man's eyes slowly opened. He stared at Chiharu for a moment and muttered something. Then he turned to Kenji and took a deep breath.  
  
"Kenshin," he uttered in a hoarse whisper; "I'm glad to see that you're fine. I've come with a warning! You must----"  
  
He wasn't able to finish what he was going to say, for he had become unconscious again.  
  
"Oh no!" yelped Chiharu; "What are we going to do now? If we don't find help soon, I don't now what's going to happen."  
  
"Mr. Myoujin's house isn't far from here," he replied; "Lets hurry, this man must have known my father so he should be able to tell us who he is."  
  
He placed the man's arm over his shoulder and, after regaining his balance, began to follow Chiharu along the path.  
  
They reached Yahiko's around ten minutes later. Tsubame was busy doing the laundry while her baby, Makiko, napped peacefully by the porch.  
  
"Oh!" she said cheerfully to greet them as they approached; "Kenji! Chiharu! It's nice of you to visit us again. What do you have there?" she said pointing towards the man on Kenji's shoulder.  
  
"We have no clue," he answered; "He just came out of nowhere and collapsed. We thought you might know---"  
  
At that moment, Yahiko slid open the front door and beamed at his two visitors.  
  
"Ah," he said; "It's good to see you two again. Have you been enjoying your trip? Well I know Hiko so it must be a relief. I've just been---"  
  
He froze as he looked over to them.  
  
"No! It can't be," he whispered as he walked toward them; "SANOSUKE!" he yelled with surprise as he got a clear view of the man; "But I thought he was still in Mongolia!"  
  
They all looked at him with curiosity.  
  
"Sagara Sanosuke?" whispered Tsubame; "But what happened to him, he's a wreck!"  
  
"Who's Sagara Sanosuke?" asked Chiharu.  
  
"An old friend of Yahiko," she answered softly; "and Kenji's father."  
  
Kenji looked at her with surprise; "Huh?"  
  
"He was," she said; "And one of his closest too. He had a huge tab at the old restaurant."  
  
She forced a small chuckle but then stopped and looked at her husband with pity.  
  
"OH NO!" he suddenly shouted; "Tsubame! You have to go and fetch Megumi! Hurry, he's bleeding!"  
  
Kenji could only watch as Tsubame dashed off along the trail. Yahiko, meanwhile, was trying to stop the blood, which was now slowly covering his already stained cloak.  
  
The rest of the afternoon went by in a flash. Megumi had come running to them a few minutes later, closely followed by Tsubame. They then rushed Sanosuke into one of Yahiko's spare bedrooms.  
  
"Tsubame," said Megumi as soon as they had settled down; "I'll be needing your help, he isn't in a very good condition."  
  
"Why her?" asked Yahiko; "I can help out as much a she could. And I can't stand to wait here while my friend's like this."  
  
"Because as I recall, you were the one that always needed treatment. And that's not going to help much." she said sarcastically.  
  
"Dumb fox lady," he muttered under his breath.  
  
"I heard that," she said. And she closed the door.  
  
Kenji, Chiharu and Yahiko went to sit at a table in another room. Every thing was silent until Chiharu became a little nervous.  
  
"So why did he suddenly turn up here if he was all the way in Mongolia?" she said to start a conversation.  
  
"I don't know," he replied; "He might have left to evade the police. But he knew that someone would recognize him if he ever returned."  
  
"Why was he running from them?" she asked.  
  
"He didn't have a very clean record," he said; "Sanosuke used to gamble, start street fights and, as I recall, he tried to plant explosives in a government building once, he didn't like them very much. And he had an awful relationship with one of the officers, Hajime Saitou."  
  
"Know wonder he was one of my father's friends," said Kenji; "They were both useless."  
  
"It wasn't like that," replied Yahiko in a more serious tone; "As a matter of fact, Kenshin, your father, was the one that stopped him from some of them, well, not all."  
  
"Whatever," he muttered; "It's not like I'm going to start liking him because of that."  
  
"Your father was a great man," he said; "once he even---"  
  
Suddenly, a baby's cry rang through the house.  
  
"Oh!" he continued in a much calmer voice; "I guess Makiko just woke up. I'll just go check on her."  
  
He stood up and went in the direction of the wails, which ceased a minute later.  
  
"Are you okay?" Chiharu asked Kenji; "Don't worry, you'll find out the truth about them soon enough."  
  
"Yeah," he answered; "but it won't make much of a difference."  
  
And he sighed as he slumped back into his seat. 


	3. Sanosuke's Journey

Disclaimer: I am not the owner of Rurouni Kenshin, even though I would like to be.  
  
Chapter Three: Sanosuke's Journey  
  
It was around lunchtime when Tsubame and Megumi returned. Kenji and Chiharu were sitting by the table silently eating some food that had been given to them. But Yahiko was leaning in the corner staring up to the ceiling with a small frown.  
  
"So how is he?" he said when they entered the room.  
  
"We were able to patch up the wound," answered Megumi; "but he has lost a lot of blood and we don't know if he'll be fine after that."  
  
They noticed that she had a very sad expression.  
  
"Don't worry," said Tsubame who was now trying to calm the tense atmosphere around them; "Megumi is one of the best doctors in town, like Dr. Genzai was, so I'm sure Sanosuke will be back to health sooner or later."  
  
"So what happened to him anyway?" said Kenji as he placed his empty bowl back onto the table.  
  
"I don't know for sure," replied Megumi as she sat down beside Chiharu; "but it looks as if he had been attacked because I noticed that the bleeding had come from a deep wound, possibly a slash, that was made across his chest. It might have sealed for a moment when you found him, so it only started bleeding again during your trip over here."  
  
"But it would take a master swordsman to do that to Sano! Even at his age!" exclaimed Yahiko.  
  
"Well," said Tsubame; "we have no way to know about now. We'll just have to wait until he wakes up."  
  
"Fine then." he muttered as he sat down again.  
  
Two days had past since Sanosuke returned. Kenji and Chiharu would be returning to Hiko's that day and decided to pay a last visit to the Myoujins. They received a warm welcome from Yahiko and Tsubame then went inside.  
  
"I can't believe you two are leaving already," said Tsubame with a sigh.  
  
"And if I know Hiko Seijuro, you won't be coming back for a long, long time." Yahiko chuckled.  
  
"So we can't stay very long," said Kenji, more cheerful than he had been in the last few days.  
  
"But," whispered a voice from behind the screen "at least stay long enough to hear this."  
  
"Huh?" they all said in surprise, as they turned to the door as it slowly slid open. And from the other room emerged…  
  
"Sanosuke!" yelled Yahiko as he ran over to his old friend.  
  
Sano gave him a big grin but suddenly stumbled over. He said a soft ouch in his old hoarse voice then stood up again.  
  
"Why are you out of bed?" scolded Tsubame as she rushed over to join them along with Kenji and Chiharu; "You're not fully healed yet! Come on, let's get you back in there."  
  
They went back to the spare room and made Sanosuke lie down again. He paused for a moment to get his thinking straight.  
  
"How long have I been here?" he asked a little later.  
  
"About two days," answered Kenji.  
  
Sano looked over to him again and said; "So you must be Kenshin's son. Kenji, right?"  
  
"Yeah," he muttered.  
  
"You and that girl over there were the ones that found me before I passed out?" said Sano, looking towards Chiharu who had just returned with Tsubame carrying a small tray of food. "I'm sorry if I mistook you for your father, you look so much alike that I could not tell the difference."   
  
Kenji shot him an angry look for a second then turned away.  
  
"Don't talk to him about this father much." whispered Yahiko.  
  
"Oh," he said silently.  
  
"So what happened to you anyway?" asked Chiharu, trying to change the subject.  
  
"It's a long story," he told them as all of them were now paying close attention to him; "but I guess this is what you've all been waiting to know all this time. So here it is…  
  
"While I was in Mongolia, I was living in a very crowded town, so news traveled pretty fast. Now, most of them were most unlikely so I didn't really believe one that had been going around for a while. It was about how a certain Hitokiri Battousai had just died back in Japan. Well, that was until I remembered that Kenshin was suffering from a deadly sickness the last time I saw him. It was a confusing time for me then since I had not been there for him when, or if, he passed away. But it became worse after I heard another rumor not long after.  
  
"Many people were talking about how some skilled swordsmen were then hoping to claim the title of Battousai for themselves. Just like before, this did not bother me for this had already been going on even when your father was alive. So I just went along with my daily business and soon I had forgotten about what I had heard that day.   
  
"But still the possibility of Kenshin's death bothered me. One day, I could not take the tension any longer. So I packed my bags and set out toward Japan. Things went very smoothly on the trip for there to China, yet things turned ugly when I arrived here a few weeks ago.  
  
"I was a few miles away from here when I decided to take a little break. I sat down behind a large boulder and fell asleep. I was startled awake by the sound of footsteps from behind the rock shortly after. I assumed that they had not noticed me so I just sat there to make sure it would stay that way.  
  
"I was able to hear some of the conversation, I knew at once that these people were not going to tolerate my being there. It proved that the rumor from Mongolia was true, one of them was an excellent swordsman and I found that out not long after. The man and two others were discussing something about their possible take over. One of them reported that Battousai had a son that was now considered his momentary successor since no one had proven himself worthy of the title yet. And to them the only way to earn it was to defeat you. But their leader was the sort of person that will not settle for only victory, you know what I mean.  
  
"So, I knew everything then, Kenshin had gone, and you were in danger, Kenji. I was about to sneak away, but suddenly a voice shot out.  
  
"It was the leader that spoke; 'I know your there,' he said with in a cold voice; 'Do you think I did not notice? Well I guess you were wrong.  
  
"It all went so fast that I cannot recall the exact details. All I can remember is a hooded figure diving at me from behind and slashing me on the chest. I had tried to defend myself but it proved useless against him. I found myself lying on the spot, I had somehow survived it with only that injury, but I still felt weak. Once I got my thoughts straight, I had to rush over here before it was to late. And that's when you found me after a while."  
  
When Sanosuke finished, everyone was silent. No one had anything to say, except Kenji.  
  
"And so that means that the only way for that person to get my father's title is for him to kill me then." he said with slight anger.  
  
Sanosuke nodded and a look of guilt spread across his pale face.  
  
"Well, I'd better get going then," he shot back as he headed towards the door; "Come on Chiharu."  
  
She looked up at him then stood up to follow; "Okay."  
  
"Goodbye." he said finally, not looking at either of them as he walked into the gloomy street. 


End file.
